<p>Winner of The Women's Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.</p> <p>The poignant - and at times very funny - novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Dutch House and Commonwealth.</p> <br> <br> <p>Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honour of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerised the international guests with her singing.</p> <p>It is a perfect evening - until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.</p>